Rotary drum snowplow



June. 1951 F. F. WI'KLLACK 2,555,948

' ROTARY DRUM SNOWPLOW Filed Oct. :51, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 35 1 v/za MM I a? 0 21' I w 0 o N I O rem/21.9.2 .2 4

INVENTOR. FRANZ FM/ALLACK V BY -' ATTORNEY INVENTOR. FKANZ E WALLACK ATTOR/VE Y 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 F. F. WALLACK ROTARY DRUM SNOWPLOW June 5, 1951 Filed Oct 31 1950 Patented June 5, 1951 ROTARY DRUM SNOWPLOW Franz F. Wallack, Bruck an der Glocknerstrasse, Austria Application October 31, 1950, Serial No. 193,119 In Austria September 13, 1947 1 Claim. 1

This application is in part a continuation of application Serial No. 141,633, filed February 1, 1950, now abandoned.

This invention relates to a rotary drum snow plow, which is adapted to form part of a motor vehicle built for the purpose or which may be in the form of an attachment for a motor truck, locomotive, street car or the like.

The object of the invention is to provide a plow of the type having a pair of vertically disposed cutter drums which are adapted to clear the snow from the highways irrespective of the condition of snow, thereby maintaining open highways for traffic at all seasons of the year.

Another object is to construct a plow so that snow of moderate elevation may be removed in one single process on a comparatively large area.

A further object of the invention is to devise a snow plow which will remove high side-walls previously built up by plows, especially insofar as those side-walls lie in the road way.

Another object of the invention is to construct a snow plow so that vertical snow-walls extending in the longitudinal direction of the med may be removed readily.

Still another object is to reduce the number of parts of the snow plow which move and discharge the snow.

Other objects will be apparent to those familiar with this art and with the difficulties encountered in it, some of which arise from the very wide variation in weight of snow per unit volume, compactness and moisture content.

The accompanying drawings show two forms of this invention which were built for the purpose of trying out in actual operation the fea tures claimed herein, and to determine their merit by comparison with other equipment.v

In the drawings: Fig. 1 is a side elevation of my improved snow along the plane of the line VI-VI of Fig. '7.

Fig. 7 is a horizontal section through the blower along the plane of the line VIL-VII of Fig. .6.

.40 plow, with parts of the same broken away and cutter drums.

2 Fig. 8 is a section similar to that of Fig. 5 but showing a modified form of a cutter;drum.

Fig. 9 shows diagrammatically the division of the drum into different working sec-tors.

Referring for the present to Figs. 1 and 2, wherein the general assembly is shown, I represents a frame to which all the parts of the device are attached or mounted. The frame I is supported by two pairs of front wheels 2 and 3 and one rear wheel 4, the latter being rotatable around a vertical axle 5 for the purpose of steering the vehicle.

The engine 5 driving the vehicle is mounted on the frame I and drives, through a horizontal shaft 1 and the usual gearings, the pairs of front wheels 2 and 3. The drivers cab 8 is also arranged on the frame I, the necessary clutch devices being arranged in said cab.

The two lateral portions of the frame I are interconnected by means of a pin 9 onto which two supports I5 are pivoted, said supports Ill being interconnected by a tubular member 24 also pivoted onto said pin 9. Each of the supports extends to the front of the vehicle and is provided with a vertical portion I6 and a forwardly projecting horizontal portion I5 and also carries a downwardly bent support I! for bearing" the Each horizontal portion 15 of the support I0 carries a pin I I onto which a piston I2 is pivoted and each front endof the lateral portions of the frame I carries a pin I3-onto which a cylinder [4 is pivoted. The cylinder I4 is filled with oil and serves for raising and lowering the piston I2 which slides therein. Thereby the frontends of the supports I0 and also the cutter drums can be raised and lowered relative to the roadway.

A horizontal shaft I9 rotates in bearings I8 arranged onto the horizontal portions I5 of the supports Ill, which shaft is driven by a cutterdriving engine 20. The shaft I9 carries a sprocket wheel 2i which drives by means of a sprocket chain 22 a sprocket wheel 23 mounted on the horizontal shaft I9. The horizontal shaft I9 operates the two cutter drums by means of bevel gears 26 and 21, a horizontal shaft 28 and bevel gears 30 and 31. The horizontal shaft 28 extends .verging space cutter drums.

bent supports ll. Each cutter shaft 32 bears between the supports i5 and I! an upper disc 35 and a lower disc 36 on which the cutter blades as well as the guide blades are secured. 7

Referring to Figs. 4 and 5, three cutter blades 3! are provided at the circumference of each cutter drum, which=cut or shave off the snow when the cutterdrum is in rotation. The cut-off snow then enters the interior of the cutter drums, where three guide blades 42 are arranged. The. inner end 42a of each guide blade 42 is pivotally connected by a hinge pin 3% to a radial projec tion of a rotary core member 38. Bores 46 are provided in the upper and lower discs 35 and" 35 of the cutter drums and bolts 39 extend through said bores 46 and into bores inlthe endsof pins 39a to adjust the position of the coremember relative to the discs 35 and 35 and thereby also to the cutter blades 3']. Moreover, bores 43 are provided in the upper and lower discs 35 and 35, at a larger radius, and pins 35 extend into these bores and through bores 44 provided in the guide blades 2 to alter the position of the guide blades relative to the upper and lower discs 35 and 3B and to the core'member 38. The cutting edges of the cutter blades 31 may consist either of straight edges parallel to or inclined towards the axis of rotation, or of broken or curved edges. The guide blades form troughs, the outwardly concave bottoms of which extend close to the drum shaft. The radius T2 of the outermost edges of the guide blades 42 is smaller than the radius T1 of the cylinder defined by the cutting edges of the revolving cutter blades. The two cutter drums are partially enclosed by a casing 46 extending forwardly to a plane substantially coincident with a vertical plane ,passing through the axes of the cutter drums.

tical discharge tube 54 arranged above the fanwheel in such a manner that it lies above the fins or buckets 53 behind the shaft 48 of the fan-- wheel 41. A curved chute 51 is connected by means of flanges 55 and 56 with the upper end of the tube 54 and may be swung about a vertical axis so as to discharge the snow toward either side of the road.

In the modifiedform ofthe cutter drums shown in=Fig. 8, the ends of the guideblades 42 cannot vehicle advances; the cutter blades 3i on theiront The casing 46 comprises an enlarged forward,

section having a flaring mouth portion which extends substantially the full width of the plow, side wall portions a curving rearwardly' and inwardly from the mouth and rear wall portions diib extending inwardly from the side Wall p'ortions, anda central restricted section which extends rearwardly from the inner ends of the rear wall portions 452) of the forward section and is shaped to form a blower or fan-wheel housing .460. The two cutter drums are arranged in close proximity to one another in the enlarged forward I section of the casing and extend across substantially the entire width of the mouth portion, being rotatable about vertical axes disposed in a vertical plane normal to the direction of travel of. the plow. A fan-wheel 4'! is located in the blower housing 450 formed by the rearwardly extending central portion of the casing and is mounted on a horizontal shaft 48 which is parallel .to, and spaced rearwardly from, the vertical plane containing the axes of the cutter drums.

The central plane of rotation of the fan-wheel 41 is thus in a longitudinal vertical plane which passes midway between the axes of the cutter drums. The forward portion of the fan-wheel projects forwardly into the enlarged forward section of the casing 46 and extends into the conbetween the rear portions of the The fan-wheel shaft 48 is journaled in bearings 49 located on the supports 10 and is driven through a speed-varying gearing 50 by an engine 5|. The fan-wheel preferably consists of amiddle portion 52 onto which a number of curved fins or buckets 53 are fastened, the outer ends of the fins being free.

The blower housing 460 is provided with veg-.-

portions of the cutter drums cut into the-snow. The lower ends of the cutter blades 31' are located close to the surface of the road and will effectually remove the snow therefrom, even when the same is hard, frozen or icy. The cutting action of the blades 31 occurs in the'sector a in Fig. 9. The snow enters the interior of the cutter drum and engages the guide blades 42 close to the shaft 32. The guide blades 42 receive the snow and conveyit away from the central longitudinal plane of the plow and around to the rear portions of the cutter drums (sector b; Fig. 9). At the same time, the snow picks up velocity and is moved by centrifugal force toward the circumferences of the cutter drums. As the snow reaches sector 0 (Fig. 9), it is thrown toward the central longitudinal vertical plane of the plow, being guided by the easing into the opposite sides of the fan-wheel 41 which ejects the snow through the discharge tube and blows it a considerable distance in a direction determined by the chute 51. Thus the snow is fully ejectedfrom the cutter drums before reaching the sector d in which the drums closely approach one another. Jamming or packing of snow between the cutter drums is thereby avoided. It will further be seen that, in: the arrangement 0 according to the. invention, it is possible to use a single fan-wheel for the two cutter drums, the snow being discharged by the cutter drums into the opposite sides of theforward portion of the fan-wheeL.

The'spe'e'd-of rotation ofthe cutter drums'and of the fan-wheel depends on the conditions of the snow, the-desired distance to which the snow has to be thrown out, etc. Inan example of the machine, the cutter drums rotate at 120' revo1utionspe'r minute, whereas the speed of the fanwheel can be changed from 120 to 350 revolutions per minute. The axis of the fan-Wheel is disposed at about two-thirds of the height of the cutter drums and the diameter of the fan-wheel is greater than said height;

It will be apparent that many changes may be made in the details of construction without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, the method of driving the various moving parts may be considerably varied. In the mechanism, break pins or other safety devices may be employed'toprevent damage. tothe apparatus in case'of' jamming through unbreakable objeg'stsbeing drawn into the apparatus.

What I claim is:

In a snow plow, a casing comprising an enlarged forward section having a flaring mouth portion extending substantially the full width of the plow, side wall portions curving rearwardly and inwardly from said mouth and rear wall portions extending inwardly from said side wall portions, and a central restricted section extending rearwardly from the inner ends of said rear wall portions and shaped to form a blower housing having a discharged opening, a pair of cutter drums disposed in the enlarged forward section of the casing and rotatable about vertical axes disposed in a vertical plane normal to the direction of travel of the plow, said cutter drums being in close proximity to one another and extending across substantially the entire width of the mouth of said forward section, means for rotating said cutter drums in opposite directions with the front portions of the cutter drums moving outwardly away from each other, a fan-wheel in said blower housing rotatable about a horizontal axis parallel to, and spaced rearwardly from, said vertical plane, the central plane of rotation of the fan-wheel being in a longitudinal vertical plane midway between the axes of the cutter drums, the forward portion of said fan-wheel projecting forwardly into the enlarged forward section of the casing and extending in between the peripheries of the rear portions of said cutter drums, and means for driving the fan-wheel, whereby snow engaged by said cutter drums is carried by the front portions of the cutter drums away from said longitudinal vertical plane and then is thrown toward said longitudinal vertical plane by the rear portions of the cutter drums, being guided by the casing into the opposite sides of the forward portion of the fan-wheel.

FRANZ F. WALLACK.

REFERENCES CITED The, following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 931,559 Bellrud Aug. 17, 1909 1,545,235 Cole July 7, 1925 1,667,445 Smith Apr. 24, 1928 1,977,871 Christopherson Oct. 23, 1934 2,103,514 Cole Dec. 28, 1937 2,387,423 Venable Oct. 23, 1945 

